The Jewel of the Pelvic Floor

Dominika Gaines is a GYROTONIC® Master Trainer and GYROKINESIS® Pre-Trainer. In her blog post, “The Jewel of the Pelvic Floor,” she gives us an insightful look at one of the most unique and foundational principles in both the Gyrotonic Method and the Gyrokinesis Method – narrowing of the pelvis.

If you are unfamiliar with this concept, the explanation below provides a brief introduction.

Photos provided by Dominika Gaines

Introduction to the Pelvic Diamond and Narrowing

“Narrowing” is a fundamental and unique principle of the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM®. Other movement practices teach “pulling up” or “engaging your core,” but no other (that I know of!) employs this concept of decompression at the spine, pelvis, and joints.

In Physics, there is a concept called “Poisson’s Effect.” The most basic explanation is that an object will displace in the opposite direction of force applied to it. So, pressing against the two sides horizontally will displace the mass vertically. This is essentially what we do in narrowing – we eccentrically and isometrically activate the muscles around the pelvis and thorax to put pressure on the sides of the vertebra and vertebral spaces to create an elongation, and thus supported, decompression of the spine.

In the accompanying blog, I discuss the pelvic floor musculature and a very simple way to begin building the foundation for narrowing. Narrowing certainly requires more muscular activation than just this one area, and there are also energetic components (both the 5th line and suppling), but here is a place to start with a client who may not have much awareness of their bony structure, misconceptions about how their pelvic floor functions, or the inability to differentiate there pelvis and hip.